Today I got a call from our local oil field, Oregon Basin, about a couple of ducks they'd found near their gas plant. There were three but one of them fell to the ground, took a couple steps and then died. The other two were just there, not doing anything.
When I got there I easily gathered up the two live birds but they were acting very odd, never even tried to fly away. The dead bird was sent to the state lab for testing to see if it can be determined just what killed the bird.
Since the two survivors have been in the warmth of my cage room they've perked up considerably. We decided, after a lot of checking, that these are either all female Redhead Ducks or young of the year that, if drakes, won't get their colorful plumage until next year.
Now it's wait and see if these two survive and just what killed the third one.
On another note... I talked with the people doing a bird count on the lakes near the airport and they reported seeing an Oldsquaw, now called a Long-tailed Duck, which has only been documented a few times in Wyoming. A wonderful sighting.
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